Nearly every industry is in a price bidding war right now. Amazing deals are to be had at every turn: Dinner for two at a gourmet restaurant for $39. A sea of clothing racks where everything is $6.99. Free admission to museum and zoo exhibits. A solar system for $.10 per kilowatt. Okay, I made that last one up. However, it seems as if businesses are doing anything they can right now to keep customers in the door, even if it means practically giving their product or service away. I understand why we are in a bidding war, but I’m concerned with the discount centric culture in which we’ve become. As a consumer, the bargain basement deals certainly make life easier. However, I also wonder if these dirt cheap prices are really helping businesses stay afloat, or if they are hurting them. Overpaying for goods and services is not necessary, but underpaying is not going to help anyone either. Consumers are becoming accustomed to getting everything at a discount, and businesses are going to continue losing money. Large ticket items are not immune to the bidding wars either, including solar systems. Solar companies, just like the restaurant next door are forced to undervalue their product just to stay in the game. It’s unfortunate, but that is the way of the World right now. Solar companies and other businesses have to hope that in the long run consumers will value them for more than the lowest price tag. When the dust settles, nobody is going to remember who had the best sale. Quality, integrity, constituency, and reliability are all things that keep consumers coming back, and with an investment like a solar energy system, these are worth paying for.

Holly
Public Relations

This week we are having the landscapers trim the trees to minimize the shading on our solar panel installation. Our neighbor is allowing us to trim the top of her tree as well. Our neighbor’s tree partially shades only one of our panels but because it is on a string inverter, it has the potential to decrease the efficiency of all the panels on that string. In our case, that is 11 of our 66 panels. That could potentially have a big impact on the amount of energy we are producing throughout the course of the year. I’m really excited to see how much of a difference it makes on the solar energy production of the modules that are affected.

When shading is an issue, using a solar module with a micro-inverter or enPhase inverter can make a difference. Each module is independent of the others so if it gets shaded or dirty, it does not affect the efficiency of any other module. We opted not to do this because of the minimal amount of shade and our environmentally conscious neighbor. Another benefit of enPhase is the ability to track your production and efficiency online.

Julie King

I’m excited to see my electric bill! In years past, I have dreaded that monthly bill, but now I can hardly wait until it comes. Our photovoltaic system, installed by Harmon Solar of course, went online at the beginning of September and I’m counting the days to see my solar energy savings. Although when the bill comes, I shouldn’t be surprised. Each day I check the meters to see if I’m getting the most out of the panels on our roof. So far, we have exceeded the expected energy produced and as long as we maintain our panels, keep them free of dust and debris, I fully expect to have a nice energy credit by the end of the year.

Getting solar panels has also opened my eyes to other ways I can conserve energy. When looking at my family’s energy usage, you could say we were considered “energy hogs.” Now, my goal is to become energy independent. That means I need to pay close attention to other ways I can conserve. Stay tuned for more… I’ll let you know my first month’s savings.

Julie King

As safety director for Harmon Electric and Harmon Solar, one of my weekly responsibilities is to send out a weekly job site training sheet, which is commonly known as TOOLBOX TALK. This week’s TOOLBOX TALK will have to do with AERIAL DEVICES and CRANES, so I thought I might just use this opportunity and talk a little about crane use common sense, especially on rooftop solar installations.

It’s not uncommon for us to use cranes for the setting of light poles and sometimes to set electrical gear, and we always use a crane to set our solar panels at solar installations. On rooftops, with this comes a risk of danger and injury – here is a slogan I once saw. “If it’s in the air, it’s dangerous.” This is something everyone working around a crane should remember.

While using a crane to lifting and setting materials, be it on the ground or for a roof top, you should never stand or walk under the load or the crane boom, and you should always watch out for the swing, this could be just as dangerous as a falling load – when a load starts to swing from side to side, you could get pinned in between a stationary object causing injury, or even death.

Although cranes can make our work easier, they can also come with a high risk of danger and/or death – team work is always important on any job site. To help in the prevention of injuries when a crane is on site – team work should double.

Len
Safety Director